Master Gudo Nishijima has been practicing Buddhism for more than sixty years.
He was a student of Master Kodo Sawaki, an itinerant priest famous
for his efforts to restore Zazen to its rightful place at the center
of Buddhism. Master Nishijima was ordained as a priest by the
late Master Rempo Niwa, formerly head of the Soto Sect,
and has written many books on Buddhism
in both Japanese and in English.
For over twenty years, he has been
giving instructions on Zazen and lectures in English.
See here for details.

◊ ANNOUNCEMENTto Dogen Sangha members:
From now on only master Nishijima will be able to post blog entries, but you may still leave comments.
Registration with this blog is no longer necessary, but you must have a Blogger, Google, or OpenID account to
post comments. Anonymous comments are not allowed.
Thank you,
Dogen Sangha Blog Administration (info.nishijima@mac.com).

Sunday, April 25, 2010

How to practice Zazen.

First of all, it is necessary for you to meet a person, who knows the method of how to practice Zazen, first.

If it is difficalt for you to meet such a person, please read my book " Wow to practice Zazen" through Amazon. Of course, in my Dogen Samgha Blog there are also so many precise teachingshaving written already, and so you can read them totally free.

Therefore it is possible for you to read my "Dogen Samgha Blog," freely, you can get so many knowledge about Buddhism and Zazen .

When we practice Zazen, it is necessary for us to practice Zazen everyday without fail. If we practice Zazen, not everyday, but only several times as we like, such kind of flimsy practice might be useless almost at all. In other words it is perfectly important for us to practice Zazen everyday as if we have to eat meals everyday.

Zazen is a kind of habit, and it is necessary for us to establish the daily habit without fail. It is not necessary for us to get the so-called enlightenment. Because the so-called enlightenment is just a Romantic story, which many children love. But Buddhism is never a Romantic story, but it is just Action. It is just sitting. It is just Practice. It is just Reality.